Work Alone Together (Note-and-Vote)
Replace group brainstorms with silent individual idea generation, a quiet vote, and one designated decider
- Difficulty
- Starter
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 90%
A decision-making tactic used throughout the Foundation and Design Sprints to move through many decisions quickly while getting everyone's real perspective. Each person works in silence writing their own answers, the team votes quietly, and a single designated 'decider' makes the call so the group can move on. It deliberately rejects open group brainstorming.
Origin
Codified by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky as core sprint mechanics; part of a broader anti-brainstorm trend Lenny notes across guests (including naming expert David Placek), reacting against the IDEO-popularized post-it brainstorm.
Core principles
- 01People think more deeply and originally alone and in silence than out loud in a group
- 02Seeing everyone else's independent answers simultaneously is where value appears — you realize what you missed or disagreed on
- 03Save decision-making energy for the decisions that matter most by structuring the rest
- 04A single named decider prevents endless discussion
How to run it
- 1
Pose one sharp question
Ask a single concrete question, e.g. 'who is the most important customer' or 'what are all the customers we might consider.'
- 2
Everyone writes in silence
All participants independently write down their own multiple answers, with no discussion — whether it's two co-founders or a team of seven.
Pro tip Silence plus structure is what lets a large team move through many conversations without the usual social friction.
- 3
Reveal and vote quietly
Put all answers up, let everyone see them at once, and vote quietly on the options.
Pro tip The 'heads up' moment of seeing others' answers is the point — expect surprise at the specifics even when the overall shape feels familiar.
- 4
The decider decides
One designated decider — usually the CEO, sometimes the chief product officer — locks in the choice for now so the team moves forward.
Pro tip Having an external facilitator push the team to 'try harder, dig deeper' sharpens the answers further.
In the wild
Chris and James silently wrote their own answers to 'who is the most important customer,' then voted, with the CEO acting as decider to lock each basic before moving on — letting them motor through customer, problem, competition and advantages quickly.
→ Produced a one-page 'basics' sheet whose specifics surprised the founders even though the overall picture felt right.
Common mistakes
Running a large open-group brainstorm
Brainstorms with lots of people talking are described as 'dead in every way' — the loudest voice dominates and the quiet deep thinking that produces good answers never happens.
Is it for you?
Best for
Any founding team or working group that needs to make a sequence of decisions quickly without letting discussion run forever
Not ideal for
Trivial decisions that don't warrant the ceremony, or teams with no willingness to designate a single decider
From the transcript
“this tactic that we call work alone together”
“the note and vote is this method where everyone's in silence”
“one person who's designated as the decider. Usually it's going to be the CEO”
From the episode
Rapidly test and validate any startup idea with the 2-day Foundation Sprint (from the creators of the Design Sprint)
Jake Knapp & John Zeratsky (Character Capital)